Cyclists felled by barricade along Iron Horse Trail

KITCHENER — Patrick Gilbride was almost home when he was thrown off his bicycle and hit the pavement.

“I heard the sound of my helmet hitting the ground,” said Gilbride, who had been visiting a friend and was cycling home on the Iron Horse Trail around 11 p.m. last Wednesday.

He had no light on his bike, hit a barricade that he didn’t see in time, and fell to the ground.

Gilbride spent the night in hospital and is recovering from shoulder injuries. But he’s not the only cyclist to have had an accident at that part of the trail where train tracks cross it near Victoria Park.

A cyclist died in the same spot three years ago. Like Gilbride, he was riding in the dark, hit the barricade and fell on his head. But Paul Brenner had not been wearing a helmet, and died of massive head injuries.

Gilbride’s wife, Linda, also said neighbours have told stories of numerous accidents at that spot. And on the Record’s “Take the Lane” cycling blog, one person commented that she broke both arms in an accident there.

The trail is a smooth ribbon of asphalt that winds through wooded areas and behind backyards in central and north Kitchener. Because the train tracks cross diagonally, they’re dangerous to cross at full speed on a bicycle.

So city officials put up the barricades on either side of the tracks that partially block the trail, forcing cyclists to dismount, or ride very slowly around them.

The barricades have strips of yellow fluorescent tape on them so they are visible at night. But to see them in time, you need a light.

Patrick Gilbride says he felt “stupid” that he didn’t have a light on his bike and doesn’t want to blame the city.

But that said, he points out that a lot of people are having accidents there, and some safety lights, even solar ones, might help.

Jim Witmer, the city’s director of operations, said he hadn’t heard about multiple accidents at that spot.

The city put reflective tape on the barricade after the death in 2008 and “when light hits it, you see it immediately,” he said.

Witmer also said the city’s cycling and trails master plan is being drafted and will be approved later this year. If the public is interested in safety improvements to trails, this would be the time to come forward.

Witmer said that having lights at the barricade may not be a good idea, because it will take people a while to adjust to the darkness again, so their night vision will be impaired.

As he rode the trail close to his home last week, Gilbride said he focused on the lights of Queen Street ahead of him just for a second, and didn’t see the barricade until it was too late.

He put out his hands to break his fall and felt his helmet hit the pavement. He lay on the ground for a moment. A passerby asked if he was all right and he said he was. A surge of adrenalin allowed him to get up and manage the two-minute walk home.

He spent the next nine hours in the hospital emergency room, with damage to the tendons in his shoulder. He will need continuing medical treatment.